Best Rod Support System? Prices? Links?

Yep, one of the major benefits of the Cinevate system which until Letus came out with their rod system, was the separate tripod mount which allows for much more flexibility in balancing a front heavy rig. It was one of the suggestions Letus incorporated when they solicited feedback from users on a rod system.

BTW, if you don't need the front support bracket, it's $589...

However, Cinevate's Proteus system is still significantly cheaper with 60cm solid carbon fiber rods.
 
What are the typical lead for the the Letus V2 system for those who have gotten them? The website says 3-4 weeks but I'm hoping it might be shorter than that.
 
Tim you're another person using the letus v2 rods and no posting them up! No one using them has shown anyone.

note: letusdirect should be their main site because letus35.com/adapterplace is a complete pos as a site imo.
 
ecking said:
Tim you're another person using the letus v2 rods and no posting them up! No one using them has shown anyone.

note: letusdirect should be their main site because letus35.com/adapterplace is a complete pos as a site imo.
Click to expand...

Use your imagination for now. Will take a pic on the next gig though. Look at the thing on the site. It's pretty straight forward in terms of what it can do.

Concerning carbon rods. I'm not a big fan as I like rods to be threaded for expandability. Haven't seen any carbon rods that are threaded.

The other feature I like about both the Letus and Zacuto is the low profile. Not a big fan of raising the camera. It screws up the center of gravity for handheld. With both Zacuto and Letus in the snorkel down position, you're CG is quite low which makes whipping it around and keeping it on the shoulder for a while a breeze. Proteus also ha a cool hand held configuration where the ballast is over your back. Like to hear from people who've done this.

In snorkel down though, without a monitor on the back it's hard to balance the Zacuto yet possible with the V2.
 
hoarp001 said:
Theres nothign wrong with aluminium rods, zacuto rods are aluminium. The redorck rods are too shiny, and the redrock baseplate is FAR too wide, much wider than is necessary. The SGpro cheeseplate is narrow certainly, but its wide enough to provide a lot of support and has all the same screws and mounting options as the standard broadcast wedge plate has. The quick release plate and mount are the same on teh SGp as they are on the redrock rods.

The SGpro rods are very solid, despite what Chris has said.
Click to expand...


I have an SG pro baseplate and rods and the last time I used them, every time I set the camera down on a flat surface, it wanted to tip over. Not only that, it's hard to get enough contact with a mounting plate with the SG pro baseplate because it's too narrow.

I prefer stainless rods even though I never had a problem with aluminum rods.

.
 
We use the solid carbon rods for several reasons:

1. They're half the weight of stainless hollow 15mm rods.
2. They're 75% stiffer than stainless over the same length
3. They're manufactured specifically to our specifications accurate to +- 1/100th of a millimeter.
4. They can't be bent, and breaking one is virtually impossible barring hydraulic failure testing equipment.

As customers take their rails out to 45 and 60cm lengths the extra stiffness of carbon is a very good thing. The Proteus rails system is patent pending for several reasons, including the ability to have a shoulder mount configuration by just adding our grips and a pad. There's nothing else like them (at least that we've ever seen). They represent 2 years of refinement, including a few hundred napkin sketches :-)

The fact that the balance point is always the tripod plate is not an accident. What we've got coming in 2 weeks or so will make that choice a bit more logical ....
 
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As promised, pics

As promised, pics

Sorry for the delay, we've been slammed since we got back, just trying to catch back up with "real life." :)

Here are a few pictures of my rig in the field... I apologize if they're a bit dark. The photographer I work with has all sorts of crazy profiles set up, and I think I might have grabbed a print profile when I exported these out of Bridge on his machine.

After about ten days in the field, the only thing I wasn't happy with were the CAVision shoulder mount and handgrip I bought at the last minute. The shoulder mount lifts the camera up way too high, it just seems unstable... I actually prefer to shoot with no shoulder pad, or maybe a rolled up hand towel gaff-taped to the bottom of the Letus camera support. And as soon as I can afford the Z-grips, the CAVisions are hitting eBay. Slippery to the point of uselessness when you get sweaty, and tapered so that you're always fighting the tendency of the grip to slip through your hand. Oh well, live and learn.

I cobbled the monitor arm together from the carbon fiber rods from the CAVision camera support system that the Letus V2 replaced, connected to the monitor and V2 via a few of RR's MicroMounts. Worked really well, considering, and really light.

Cheers!
Paul
 

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